


A New Beginning

by house_cat333



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, F/M, Married Couple, My First Fanfic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28444950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/house_cat333/pseuds/house_cat333
Summary: My first fanfiction on this site! Inspired by the chapter in Deathly Hallows where Harry meets with Dumbledore at Kings Cross and one of my favorite quotes from Dumbledore. Set after the Battle of Hogwarts. Tonks and Lupin get a chance to be together before they move on to their next "great adventure."
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Kudos: 8





	A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> All characters are JK Rowling's property--I merely play in the sandbox of her world! Please comment, review, leave a kudos, or otherwise let me know I'm not writing in a total void :)

At first, there was nothing. 

Then, she began to feel everything all at once. Slowly, her synapses fired, her senses sharpened. Piece by piece, agonizing and wonderful at the same time, she came back together.

Tonks’ fingers twitched and her lashes fluttered. A sensation ran all through her body, sparking and prickling like the feeling of a foot falling asleep, then faded. She opened her eyes.

She saw only her hands, blinked, and a wooden surface appeared beneath them. The more she looked the clearer the details became—the details of the wood’s grain, her wedding ring glinting. She willed her fingers to wiggle—they did. She willed them to morph and they did that too, turning wrinkled and smooth, freckled then fair. Good. At least that was in order.

She knew she should be worried about something. There was some pressing unknown that desperately needed her attention, but her mind was still fuzzy as if she wasn’t quite awake yet. As she experimented moving her body, she realized it was bare and discovered a neatly folded set of robes and a pair of vaguely familiar purple dragonhide boots beside her. Huh. 

Now dressed, the world seemed to fill itself in around her even faster. The wooden surface became a weathered but well-loved bar counter. A fire grew in the stone grate not far away and a gentle warmth illuminated the space. It was very nearly the Three Broomsticks, but the floor beneath her feet was cleaner than she’d ever known it to be. Silvery light shimmered in through the diamond-paned windows so she could see the high, raftered ceiling above. It was unsettlingly quiet.

“Hello?” she called. No movement. No flicker besides the hearth. No sign of life at all. Once more she called out—nothing. The feeling she should be consumed by some thought or care grew, but Tonks just couldn’t name it.

A creak echoed from the landing upstairs above the bar and her head shot up. One of the doors opened and he appeared, the man she loved more than any other.

“Remus,” Tonks breathed. The rush of all that had happened came to her as they regarded each other from afar: the battle, the curses, the bodies, and…their son.  


It was over. Whether their side had won or lost, whether their lives had amounted to anything at all, she had no way of knowing. All over. At least for the two of them.

The pressure of the unknown she had felt since finding herself at the bar lifted and in its place was a deep, howling, ugly thing in her chest. Teddy. Her hands went to cover the gaping hole that surely was there in the place where her heart had once been. 

And then Remus stood before her, taking her hands in his and stroking her knuckles with his thumb. “I know, Dora, I know.” 

“Remus—” She wanted to fight, to run, to curl up and cry, to avenge, and to succumb all at once. Death had always been a possibility, always a shadow over their small family, but... Merlin, she had never thought it to be both of them.

“I know,” he repeated, bringing her hands to his lips, his head bent over them as if in prayer. 

“I feel it, too. I can’t believe— I’m sorry I was late coming to you. I’m sorry for so much,” he said after a moment or maybe it was an eternity. It was hard to tell. 

He raised his eyes to hers. They were the eyes of the man who had hurt her more than any other and who had also given her the greatest joys of her life and they were so full of apology just as they had been so often during their brief time together. She drew a shaky breath, saying, “No more apologies, Remus, please. What’s done is done. Just…no more. I have a feeling there’s no need for apologies anymore. Not here…wherever here is.” 

Shifting emotions ran over his face in quick succession: guilt, fear, shame, and pure pain. He took a deep, shaky breath. “Okay,” he agreed. “No more apologies. Anyway, life’s too short.” He gave her one of those crooked grins she loved, the one that read “Marauder,” and she giggled at the ridiculousness of the whole situation they were in and the strange new reality she couldn’t quite comprehend. He joined in and they were both filling up the room with uncontrolled laughter until it echoed. 

Tears poured from her eyes and Tonks only bothered to wipe them away so she could look at him, really look at him as his laughter left his lips but stayed in his eyes and another feeling joined the grasping, desperate grief within her—happiness. It wasn’t enough to break the strength of what she had lost but as she looked at her husband’s vibrant, unblemished face for the first time since they had known each other she couldn’t help but relish the sight. He appeared younger than he had been when she’d met him. This was Remus the free man, free of the werewolf curse he had known almost his whole life. Maybe it was her imagination but he seemed to stand taller and hold his shoulders straighter. Without the scars and bone-deep weariness lining his features, he was…he was… “Remus!” 

“What?” 

“I-You’re a looker, mate! I mean, I always found you hot as f… Well, but now! If I wasn’t married to you, I’d—”

He blushed furiously and that troublemaker’s grin returned. “Wotcher, Tonks,” he whispered. Before she could think, she grabbed the front of his robes and drew him close for a kiss, and for the first time she was grateful for the apparent timelessness of this place.

After they satisfactorily reassured themselves that that aspect of their relationship remained alive and whole, he drew back and touched her hair. “Glad to know it’s still pink. It’s been my favorite since we met.”

“Always.” 

Taking his hand, she drew him back to the bar where a pint of butterbeer waited next to a glass of firewhisky. They sat turned towards each other and she took the whiskey, he the beer. They sipped together.

“So, you said you went somewhere before this?” she asked.

He fiddled with his bottle his face thoughtful. “It’s hard to describe, but I was needed before I could come here. Harry needed me, needed us—Sirius, Lily, James, me—one last time. I couldn’t say no and I’m glad I didn’t. He was about to finish his final duty for Dumbledore and he just needed to know if it will all be okay in the end.”

“And will it?” 

Remus sighed and there was a calm grace about his face she had only seen there before in sleep. “Yes, love, I do believe so.” 

“Cheers, then,” she said, raising her glass. “Cheers to the end!”

“Cheers to a new beginning,” he answered. They clinked glasses and downed the remains. It was time to go. This place wasn’t the end—it was like a final breath before the plunge. She could feel the draw towards whatever lay beyond pulling her to the Three Broomsticks door. Wherever it led, she knew it wasn’t to Hogsmeade. 

Tonks stood and threw on a yellow and black scarf that hadn’t been there the moment before and Remus got to his feet beside her, affectionately fluffing the scarf around her neck. 

“I hope Teddy becomes a good man like you,” she told him. 

“I hope he’s fearless like you,” he answered with a smile.

“With him being raised by my mother, Harry Potter, and the rest of them all? How could he not be? Face it, Remus, they’ll probably do a better job than we would have.” She thought for a second. “Okay, well maybe not, no one can be the dad you would have been and I’d have been the coolest mum at Hogwarts. But since we can’t be there, at least we’ve left him in good hands, in a better world than the one we knew.”

“I love you, Dora. So much.”

“I love you too.” 

They shared one last kiss, the sweet twist of their final drinks on their lips as they held hands and faced the door to whatever came next. 

She opened it with her free hand and he followed her through.


End file.
